History of toum

toum's origin:

Toum – (English: Garlic Sauce) (Latin: Aioli), Origin the Levant and Northern Lebanon. A thick, creamy, and intense Lebanese sauce, oft made through the crushing together using a mortar and pestle, dating back centuries to a great grandmother who was the cook of all cooks, eater of all eaters, and sought to add spice, love, and taste to every salad, chicken, beef steak, pork, or sandwich, she cooked. Sick of the plain, Toum has since been and remains the soul and divine essence of food that, when used, shows the delicacy of perception, the accuracy of judgment, and the dexterity of mind, which go to the formation of a great artist, and an even better eater. Simply, Toum is intensely incredible.

Natural History (Naturalis Historia) is an encyclopedia published around AD 77–79 by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD). It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover all ancient knowledge.

Whether garlic was introduced to France by the Romans, brought back to France during the crusades, or a native of French soil is not known for certain. (I think it was introduced by the Romans.) Pliny the Elder discusses garlic at some length in his work Naturalis Historia, published in the year 77. He states that it “is generally supposed, in the country more particularly, to be a good specific for numerous maladies.”

Garlic has very powerful properties, and is of great utility to persons on changes of water or locality. The very smell of it drives away serpents and scorpions, and, according to what some persons say, it is a cure for wounds made by every kind of wild beast, whether taken with the drink or food . . . . or applied topically. Taken in wine, it is a remedy for the sting of the hemorrhoids more particularly, acting as an emetic. We shall not be surprised too, that it acts as a powerful remedy for the bite of the shrew-mouse, when we find that it has the property of neutralizing aconite, otherwise known as "pardalianches." It neutralizes henbane, also, and cures the bites of dogs, when applied with honey to the wound. It is taken in drink also for the stings of serpents; and of its leaves, mixed with oil, a most valuable liniment is made for bruises on the body, even when they have swelled and formed blisters.